The Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture says Government is still carrying out assessments to determine how much maize is remaining in the strategic reserves even if he has maintained that the country has enough maize in stock.
Despite the Minister of Agricuture Mtolo Phiri promising that there is enough Maize in the Country, Calls have continued from concerned stakeholders and experienced hands in statecraft demanding that Government immediately ban the export of Maize and mealie meal to prevent an impending catastrophe.
Continued export and even the news that government is planning to allow imports of maize shows that there is confusion and inexperience, a situation many feel is causing the shortage of mealie meal and maize leading to the higher prices of the commodity in the country.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Zambian Business Times – ZBT – Permanent Secretary Ministry of Agriculture Green Mbozi said assessments were not yet concluded as to ascertain how much maize was remaining in the strategic reserves.
Responding to the ZBT query on how many tons of maize was currently available in the country, Mbozi said Government has been releasing maize to the millers and it was very difficult to tell how many tons was remaining in stock.
He mentioned that Government is aware of escalating mealie meal prices in some selected parts of the country caused by high demand but said government will not ban the commodity export stating that there was enough maize and mealie meal for the country.
He said he was aware that in some parts of the country the prices are quite high as they are going up to k300 per 25 kilograms of breakfast meal adding that he was also aware that at Sakania boarder post the price of the commodity is about k600 per 25 kg.
Mbozi said the prices are high especially in the places near boarders because of the proximate to the boarder where the population on the other side is facing hunger leading to high demand which further affect prices.
He said this is because of the pressure colleagues in Congo, Tanzania and in Malawi among others are facing as there are deficit in terms of maize which is a staple food in these countries.
Mbozi reiterated that Government has not banned the export of maize and mealie meal as it has only restricted the export while making assessments of what is remaining in the strategic reserves.
He also mentioned that there has not been export quotas set to control exports as the maize which is allowed to be exported is not from the Food Reserve Agency. “The ones we are saying we can give a permit if any person have their own maize anywhere and they can prove that they didn’t take from FRA yes they can take it.” “What is there in the strategic food reserve is for Zambians and if traders or farmers have their own maize which they grew and they have it in their storage we can issue them a permit.”
When asked about measures that Government is putting in place to arrest the increase in mealie prices, Mbozi said, “the measures which are there is that we still have maize in the strategic reserve and on a weekly basis when needs arises we release sufficient stocks of maize to selected millers located in the various areas of the country.”
He said Government is working on the situation as it is closely monitoring the maize that is given to the millers. In land its easier but on the boarder there is need to increase the security personnel to help protect the maize and mealie meal from going out.
Mbozi said people are only taking advantage to smuggle the commodity as most of the boarders are very wide and practically it is not possible for Zambia to guard and put security personals along the border length, “and because of that we have challenges as people move at awkward time in the night in ungusseted roads where most likely there are no officers.”
